Editor’s note: This story has been updated with accurate enrollment and percent of change numbers pertaining to international student enrollment in fall 2024 and fall 2025. The original story showed a decrease in undergraduate student enrollment, but it actually went up from fall 2024 to fall 2025. The story incorrectly stated a 20.1% decrease in graduate international enrollment, but the decrease was 18.2%.

On Dec. 3, Wichita State University President Richard Muma announced a 3% reduction to WSU’s general use budget and said workforce reductions were “likely.” The budget reduction has since increased to 7%, about a $7.9 million reduction for the next fiscal year. 

In a Jan. 20 announcement to WSU staff, Muma attributed the reduction to next year’s budget to lower funding expected from the state and a continued decline in international enrollment. 

Provost Monica Lounsbery has confirmed that vacant faculty and staff positions will continue to be left empty in order to reduce workforce expenses. 

The funds in the general use budget come from two sources: general fees, which are funded by student tuition, and the state general fund, allocated by the state legislature from tax revenues. The general use budget is distributed across the university. 

The GU budget supports 65% of salaries and wages in Academic Affairs, according to Lyndsay Pletcher, executive director of budget. 

Lounsbery said that Academic Affairs, the largest division on campus that oversees the curriculum, faculty affairs and the budget, will attempt to minimize harm with the budget cuts. 

“That requires a careful look over everything that we’re doing,” Lounsbery said. “We’re really looking at how we can create efficiencies through maybe consolidating some of our structures.”

Lounsbery said that one of the major things the university is looking into is the number of students at WSU compared to the number of offered courses. The university is planning to cut courses that have less than 80% of their seats filled. 

“I’m not under the impression that we have a plethora of workforce here. We are really looking at things like vendor contracts,” Lounsbery said. “Around policies, around additional compensation … a major overhaul for Academic Affairs is really going to be thinking about our course offering.”

The Kansas Board of Regents decides how classes are defined, determining the difference between lectures and seminar classes. Lounsbery said that there will likely be errors at the beginning about which courses will have fewer sections and miscommunications around the amount of students allowed to enroll in one class. 

“We do not want to have an effort that impinges on academic excellence,” Lounsbery said. “I think it’s going to take some time to figure out, ‘What kind of class is this? What should the cap be?’ This is not a one and done.”

The Office of Academic Affairs created a hiring review committee in Fall 2025 to look at how essential faculty positions are and if there is enough need to replace them. The committee is made up of university employees from Human Resources, the Office of Finance and the Office of the Provost. The individuals on the committee do not receive any additional compensation for their seats. 

“We’ve grown some parts of our budget, but it hasn’t kept pace with the cost of things,” Lounsbery said. “Taking inventory on time and really thinking about the stuff that we’re doing, that maybe we’ve always done and maybe we don’t need to do some of these things anymore. And then thinking about how we can make room for new things instead of just adding a person.”

When the university announced the 3% reduction, seven College of Engineering employees had already been laid off. These positions have not been filled, partially due to decreased enrollment of international students in the College of Engineering. 

International students pay a higher rate of tuition than students from the United States. International student enrollment has a higher impact on budgets funded by tuition dollars because of this. 

There is a discounted rate for some international students called Global Select. Those in Global Select can pay 1.5 times more than the average in-state student. Other international students without the discount pay 2.5 times more than the average in-state student. Chief Financial Officer David Miller said about half the international students are discounted and half aren’t. 

Lower international student enrollment is not only happening in the College of Engineering. This fall, the university had a 7.6% increase in undergraduate international student enrollment and a 18.2% decline in graduate international student enrollment. 

“(The layoffs) is a separate issue from the budget cuts that were announced by President Muma … but in some ways it’s connected as well,” Miller said in December. 

Miller explained that the College of Engineering has seen declines in both enrollment and credit hours, which have taken hits to the college’s budget. He specifically pointed to lower enrollment in the computer science program and a decline in international students. The layoffs were part of “an effort to right-size that budget,” according to Miller. 

Many public universities in Kansas are dealing with budget cuts for the coming fiscal year because of less state funding for higher education. WSU will receive about $7.9 million less than the previous year, which Miller said would “definitely” lead to increased tuition for the next academic year. 

“Last year’s tuition rate increase was 3.5(%) … and I think we’d be looking at something that’s within that same type of range for next year,” Miller said. 

Miller said that going forward it “comes down to being faithful to our mission.” 

“The mission is ‘to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas,’” Miller said. “And so that often means that for the institution, we have to be thinking about not just today, but what does the institution look like 10 years from now?” 

Miller said not every project is immediately liked, using the Rhatigan Student Center as an example. 

“When the RSC was being remodeled and rebuilt, not all of campus was very supportive of that,” Miller said. “I mean, campus was kind of split on whether that should occur or not occur. And when I walked through that building today, I can’t imagine if that hadn’t been done.” 

Lounsbery said that the growth of projects like the innovation and biomedical campuses at WSU will benefit and grow campus resources to help fund other parts of the university. She said, “that is really important — thinking about what that return on investment looks like.”

“What I really want to focus on is the things that we do well and helping us to leverage those things to help us get out of this challenging budgetary moment,” Lounsbery said. “We don’t quite know the details of all the things we’re going to be doing to help our budget get aligned … I’m really thinking of our fiscal health. That will allow us the flexibility to do great things.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated for clarity and to provide more information regarding the Global Select program.